Friday, May 20, 2011

Zen and Central World BKK - suspended in time in google map

As when I have been finding out a number of images on google map weren't updated for years, I then came to check on Zen and Central World. Happy to see the suspended image of Zen and Central World (check photo 1 below). Zen is on the lower left. Big C on the top right. Seems like there weren't any fire. No fighting. No fire. No destruction.
Further on are images of some places of a few years ago. Photo 2 shows ICC (Kowloon West) was still under way. Photo 3 shows Hotel Palais de Chine and the mall The Station in Taipei were still a construction site. Photo 4 shows Yai Ya Hua Hin wasn't there - should be on top of Sheraton (Yai Ya has been there over 2 years). Photo 5 shows the factory outlet is still a wasteland and Blue Lagoon was named Sun Villas. Photo 6 shows The Bale' Bali wasn't with its new extension of the Deluxe villas on the top right. Photo 7 shows St. Regis Bali wasn't there either (on the right). Thanks to Google map not being updated for years. We can see Zen and Central World in its old time.








11 comments:

Stella said...

Thank you Google for not updating the photos so that we can rewind the time backward on Zen, Central World, and other places. This is a good feeling.

Good to freeze the time to the good old days.

pixmation said...

Those are satellite images, my guess is it's up to whoever operate the satellite or the program of taking images of earth. I believe NASA website has a library of earth images for viewing. I think Google just license it and that probably help funding the space program.

Street view is the one that Google is operating.

Anonymous said...

That mean google has not run live update for many years.

in the sea said...

And everything has its pros and cons. Now the pros is that we can view something back in time. In any way, regardless of whichever source the images are, those should be updated yearly. Even books have their periodical editions.

Mickey Mouse said...

maybe due to security issue, Google has problem with its Google Earth satellite image service update, now Google is focus on the Street View ..

Anonymous said...

Can't expect it good when it is free. If it happen in China, people would laugh to it. strange.

in the sea said...

Har... they didn't know about "security" a few years ago, and only know about it now. It's google, not lego. Oops.. this blog is provided by google. :) After all, I still enjoy google map much as I can go on my geography cyber class in learning more about the landscape and the mountain, north/south/east/west so that I can check more on the wind, rain, sun rise and sun set info for my resort finding. Yes, I need to have that before the trip to make sure the room's facing and pool has better sun light.
Anonymous, got it. There will be more like this.

Stella said...

Thank you Google for providing the update or no-so-updated images. Both has its merits.

Mickey Mouse said...

security means most countries don't allow Google to upload up-to-date satellite image, this issue had been widely discussed few years ago, and been reported in major int'l media ..

among many countries protest to Google is Thailand

in the sea said...

Thanks Mickey. Now I recall that. See how interesting it could be as it's from a western company, that news was then briefly talked about.
Anyway, back to that news, Google disclosed that they only removed images of the US national security spots. So that means they know about security issues even before the complaints.
Back to this issue, I found this out for quite some time but lately google claimed it updates images every few months. That aroused my curiosity. Maybe I didn't read the small words in the disclaimer's clause.
I think the post here is to ironically happily find out something I do miss - Zen and Central World in its time before the violent turmoil. It's a complex feeling to me.

Stella said...

That proves there are 2 sides of the sword.
Everything has its good and bad.